Saturday, March 10, 2007

Last 30 Days revisited

Back in October 2006 I discovered a feature on BoardGameGeek which showed you the games you had logged as played in the last 30 days, with the recommended image for each. I thought it was time to revisit this and see the differences.

My earlier entry was made not long after our month at Melbourne Museum and spring had not sprung weather wise. This thirty day period covers a hot summer, back to work for the parents, back to school and kindergarten for the girls and this year Daughter the Elder has homework and it is our preference that homework is done before games.

There are a lot less games played over the last thirty days than back in September/October last year. A lot of this due to weather and work/homework commitments.

So here are my play counts (face to face only) from the last 30 days.

Who’s The Ass - 14 plays.The game de jour at lunchtime these days, at least when we don’t have four players. We played three to six players. The hands seem better although it is much more cutthroat with three players, but it works well with any number. It has no defined finish, so we just play until our time is up.

Tichu - 5 plays.As before when we have exactly four people at lunchtime games and a deck handy this is the game of choice. Last week we started an eight player tournament where all the players will playing with all the others as partners. It will mainly get played at Gamers@Dockers sessions on Thursday nights with possible fill in sessions at the monthly Eurogamesfest.

Bamboleo - 3 plays.A very recent acquisition. When pulling it out of the box our initial thought was this will never work, but we were very wrong. An excellent dexterity game, hideously expensive in Australia.

Santiago - 2 plays.I first played this about two years ago, liked it a lot, acquired a copy and never played it again. I recently took it off the shelves and took it into work so it was available for a lunchtime session or Gamers@Dockers. Three player with two newbies can be done in under an hour, not sure about four players though. Having played it again, I have also joined about ten games at SpielByWeb although I don’t log those ones. I am still not 100% sure about the open money at SBW, but I can understand the reasoning for their implementation.

Gang of Four - 2 plays.This used to be the number one lunch time game, we had a day where we had four players and no Tichu deck so brought Gang of Four out of retirement.

Mü und Mehr - 22 plays.Prior to Who’s The Ass arriving on the scene if we didn’t have four for Tichu then this was the standard default game for lunchtime at work. It has taken a back seat recently.

Kingdoms - 1 play.I originally played this as Auf Heller und Pfennig at BGG when I thought I was signing up for a Tigris & Euphrate game. Having not read the rules it was a little confusing! I picked this copy up recently and have tried it two player so far. It is one that I think Daughter the Elder might like.

Lost Cities - 1 play.We played this at Daughter the Elder’s suggestion, she says that this is her first victory against me.

Midgard - 1 play.El Grande light perhaps? After one play I would classify it as a good short game, I think it only took about an hour. Mr Skeletor won, but he felt it was a hollow victory and he hadn’t enjoyed the journey there. That could have been the game or the people picking on him :-)

Indonesia - 1 play.We had a four player game and nobody had played it more than once previously. It took us about four hours, although it didn’t feel like a long game, there was always stuff happening. I think you need that first game just to get an idea of what is going on and what other possibilities exist. We all liked it and would play it again.

MidEvil - 1 play.A Beer & Pretzels game at best. The map tiles are too flimsy and the figures look nice but are a bit flimsy and why oh why do some of the player figures have to be exactly the same colour as the skellingtons? Most of the five players who were playing were happy to wrap it up as quickly as possible and go and play something else.

Power Grid – Central Europe - 1 play.And this was the something else after MidEvil. My first play on this map, I didn’t suffer from the no nukes policy or gain advantage from the Vienna’s cheap garbage. Two people got hemmed in and the two of us on six cities were content to stall for a while to build up some cash. As usual with our Power Grid games, the final result required a cash count.

Age of Steam - 1 play.Interesting the two player Scotland expansion doesn’t have an entry on BGG. I wonder why? The final game for the evening at this month’s Eurogamesfest. Being two player it is not a game to play by the seat of your pants, at least if you want to win.

Combat Commander: Europe - 1 play.Chee-Yan and I arrived almost at the same time to Eurogamesfest and everyone else was playing something, so he offered one of his selection of two player wargames. It has been a long time since I played a wargame so I was happy to give it a go. We played one of the easier scenarios. My Germans managed to hold off his determined Russians hanging on to the majority of the objective hexes for the win. A squad level game, I’m still not entirely used to card driven wargames, but I enjoyed it.

Commands & Colors: Ancients - 1 play.This was the next game out of Chee-Yan’s bag of games. Theoretically simpler than Combat Commander although I found that I could get by on my old wargaming memories in Combat Commander but for this game I think a bit of experience in the actual game is required to go well. That said I only lost 4-5, but I was not confident on what I was doing and I am sure Chee-Yan was being nice to me. Next is to get him to teach me some of those Columbia games I picked up!

Taluva - 1 play.It’s got pretty pieces and tiles, but it is an abstract at heart. We got a five player game up with all newbies. Forget the mineshaft gap, the temple gap would seem to be all important in this game, if somebody gets a leading position, your only chance is that you have set yourself to be able to catchup, otherwise they have probably won. I imagine that more experience in the game would help alleviate that.

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If you look you'll never find me
I've gone gaming I'll be back
Got to ship a few more barrels
Got to trade a brick or two
Got to buy some more provisions
Got to run this train on through
Got to roll a few more 6's
Got to draw a few more cards
Got to shake hands with my neighbours
'Fore I'm back in my backyard
But if you look up to the night sky
That's my spaceship passing by
Give a wave that's me inside her
It's farewell but not goodbye